WikiLeaks: British and US governments stupid, says Prince Andrew

When the newly appointed US ambassador to Kyrgyzstan sat down to a business
leaders’ brunch with the Duke of York, she was no doubt expecting a brisk
one-hour briefing on investment opportunities in the central Asian republic.

Instead, Tatania Gfoeller was taken aback as the Duke gave full rein to his undiplomatic views on a host of foreign powers, roaring with laughter as he apparently denounced them as corrupt, stupid or backward.

The ambassador to Bishkek was so surprised that she fired off a 2,000-word dispatch to Washington detailing the Duke’s colourful language during a discussion dominated by his “unmitigated patriotic fervour”.

The meeting took place on Oct 28, 2008, at a hotel in Bishkek, where the British ambassador, Paul Brummell, had invited his US counterpart to join a table of British and Canadian investors in Kyrgyzstan before the Duke met the Kyrgyz prime minister.

“Astonishingly candid, the discussion at times verged on the rude (from the British side),” wrote the US ambassador.

The discussion began with the mining and oil bosses grumbling about the system in Kyrgyzstan, where “nothing gets done” without the president’s son’s approval.

“Prince Andrew took up the topic with gusto” and “laughed uproariously, saying that: 'All of this sounds exactly like France.’”

When the businessmen harped that the Kyrgyz were “not bothering” to change their ways, the Duke “returned to what is obviously a favourite theme”, saying: “They won’t need to make any changes to attract the French either!

“The Prince mused that outsiders could do little to change the system here.” He told his audience: “They themselves have to have a change of heart. Just like you have to cure yourself of anorexia. No one else can do it for you.”

The Duke turned to regional politics, and “stated baldly” that “the United Kingdom, Western Europe (and by extension you Americans too)” were “now back in the thick of playing the Great Game”. The ambassador added: “More animated than ever, he stated cockily: 'And this time we aim to win!’”

Under the subheading “Rude language à la British”, the ambassador rounded off her cable by describing the Duke’s views on his own country. “The brunch had lasted almost twice its allotted time, but the Prince looked like he was just getting started,” she wrote.

He referred first to the Serious Fraud Office’s six-year investigation into allegations of bribery surrounding BAE Systems’ Al-Yamama arms deal with Saudi Arabia. “He railed at British anti-corruption investigators,” wrote the ambassador, “who had the 'idiocy’ of almost scuttling the Al-Yamama deal.

“He went on to 'these (expletive) journalists, especially from the National Guardian [sic] who poke their noses everywhere and (presumably) make it harder for British businessmen to do business.

“He then capped this off with a zinger: castigating 'our stupid British and American governments’ which plan at best for 10 years, whereas people in this part of the world plan for centuries.”

In her closing comments, Miss Gfoeller, who had been in her post for just six days, told Washington that the Duke had “reacted with almost neuralgic patriotism whenever any comparison between the United States and UK came up”.

Buckingham Palace refused to comment on the “private” conversation, but a senior royal source defended the Duke, saying: “He is consumed with doing the best he can for British business, and that is sometimes reflected in his colourful language.”